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Post some pics of your Fal mounted optics. Trying to get a consensus of what the "pros" use and how people like them mounted... (how close to stock, long/short scopes, red dots, night vis, tacticool, tall or low ride, see through rings..)

Any and all welcome.

Also want to see what style optic most people gravitate to.

If somebody already got a collection of pics like this then go ahead and send this post to the ole trash!!

Don't know how to post a pic on here but go to www.falltr.com and you can see many examples of our mount and the optics people have instaled. Comp c3, Red dots, light scopes, sightmarks, you name it. If they're light these work great!
Merry Christmas!

Here's my7 mounting preference. LOW! With the DSA rail machined front and back to clear objective.

Scope itself, in the picture, is a 1.5-6 VX III and and a Zeiss fixed 6x. The former was pretty good, the latter sucked in CQB and with a 300 meter zero, the fat crosshair based obscured the target at 500m.

So my ideal (and I'm still searching for it), is a 1-6x (as close to one as possible, 1.5 ok), with an illuminated red dot or crosshair, and an ELCAN/ACOG type ranging reticle. Prefer 1st focal plane but on one I'm testing now, I am finding the different eye relief from 1 to 4x is more of a hindrance than the small numbers of a fixed focal plane variable.

This is my Century Frankenfal with a Barska 8 - 32x50 mm Scope. It has illumined range finding cross hairs. So far its been great. What I like I still see pretty good in the late evenings. I’ve done a couple of nice 250 yard shots.

This is at 150 yards, and that was an old target from doing some pistol shooting.

__________________
Buying a rifle and sticking it in a SAFE and never shooting it is like marrying a woman and never kissing her

It depends what you want to do with the rifle. I think the FAL is an excellent candidate for the General Purpose Rifle (GPR). That is not a CQB rifle, nor a sniper rifle. It is an across-the-board rifle trying to fill the role of fast shots at 0-25 and accurate shots at 600+.

So the type of optic needs to take into account point blank and 600m. I think any scope with a magnification greater than 1 is sub-optimal for point black distances if involved in dynamic movement. But for some reason (I understand it's an actual physical/mechanical problem), scope manufactures don't make scopes with 1x at the low end. They are at least 1.5, or 1.75, and more likely 2 or 3. I understand that the low end must be a factor of the high end, so that 2-7 is actually a 2.5 - 7.

A 2.5x scope is a poor choice to be looking through with both eyes open while moving. It is too much of a magnification for the brain to process while moving.

The solution to a scope of higher magnification than is appropriate for shooting while moving is the addition of a Red Dot Sight (RDS).

There is also the issue of size/weight/balance.

The rifle above - sorry but the scope is just too big to be doing any rough work with it on. It may be ideal for the dude who enjoys shooting from a bench. Not so much across an obstacle course.

For rapid acquisition, I think the scope should be low, In order to not require a cheek riser. Yet it must clear the rear sight. So one must either remove the rear sight, or have the scope mounted in front of the rear sight.

So my work-in-progress scope philosophy is

short 1-6x with CQB reticule and stadia lines.
OR
side mounted RDS with a 2.5-7x, 3x9x, 2.5-10x or fixed 6x.

I think the 4x ACOG works great to fill those exact needs. It's tough as nails and it works great at good distances and is fine for cqb if the person practices enough with it. When I first got issued one I was the same way, totally thought 4x was way too much for close range, wanted to use irons. But after a lot of practice I wouldn't trade my acog for for anything. Whether your lying in the prone shooting like 300 meters or popping a corner in house or shooting whilst crossing a street, its friggin sweet. Granted this is on an M4, but when I get enough skrilla I'm gonna put one on the FAL too.

It's kind of archaic to do but when a sight sits too high what we do is just cut a piece of iso mat and tape it to the buttstock to get proper cheek weld, gotta do that with the new SDO on the SAW to use the mini-redot on top. As for range, Ive done unknown distance ranges that went out to 900meters with an acog, but that was man sized targets(the cool pop-up ivans) not precision competition stuff.
Of course in a tactical environment hitting a dude outside of 300 meters is super hard any way you slice it.

How about that for all around usefulness. Magnified optic on bottom, red dot mounted on top. Generally folks tape the iso mat on a certain area so they can still rest their cheek on the buttstock when using the SDO.

@mithellh
That is sick, I imagine my FAL will look like that when I get my ACOG. Hows that work out for ya?

@gunplumber
I bet those bandages sucked in the rain huh? Did ya'll have to spray paint them black or cover them with dirt or something because of the whiteness?
True story about the optic situation, it's nice being able to snap lighting fast without worrying about finding the sight.
Have you considered a quick mount scope? Distance equals time so in the case of making a 5-600 yard shot you would have ample time to fumble around in a pouch for the optic and mount a scope to take shots. Those cool little levers take all of a few seconds to operate, and you could run a red dot for the majority of other engagements.

@gunplumber
I bet those bandages sucked in the rain huh? Did ya'll have to spray paint them black or cover them with dirt or something because of the whiteness?

no, of course not. why would you take it out of the OD green package? Just tape it on with OD 100mph tape.

Have you considered a quick mount scope?

yes, and rejected it. Obsolete. No problem with a red dot, but when targets range from 0 to 600+ one doesn't always have time to go digging in the ruck for a scope. Scopes and mounts are rugged enough today to leave them as an integral part of the weapon system. Piggy-backing a micro red dot on a higher power optic is an option, but I'd prefer to have both in one unit.

I like Gunplumber's rifle/package the best, except the mount. Overall one of the 2 best optics you could put on the rifle. I disagree about cheeking the stock to some extent, I prefer a tight cheekweld and I like the scope to be where it needs to be eye relief wise. Close your eyes, throw up the rifle and open them on the lowest power setting if you have any shadows, blackouts or rings... not in the right place. The rest of'em... not too much. I may have to try moving one of my rails just slighty forward and try that position if the eye relief works, otherwise, I'll continue to remove the rear sight. A function of the scopes eye relief primarily. Our LTR is 2/10's of an inch lower and I like it there. Apples and oranges what you like but pratical? Only one there I see I like.

So my ideal (and I'm still searching for it), is a 1-6x (as close to one as possible, 1.5 ok), with an illuminated red dot or crosshair, and an ELCAN/ACOG type ranging reticle. Prefer 1st focal plane but on one I'm testing now, I am finding the different eye relief from 1 to 4x is more of a hindrance than the small numbers of a fixed focal plane variable.

Check this out. They make a 1 or 4x model and 1 or 6x model in 5.56 & 7.62 calibrated reticle, no magnification in between: you're either on 1x or 4x-6x because it uses a throw lever to change the power setting. Expensive.

__________________"The wholesale and indiscriminate use of firepower will only increase the effectiveness of the enemy and strengthen their resolve to prove the superiority of an agrarian culture against the world's greatest technocracy."

I went with the Warne over the Leupold because the side clamping seems to work better for me than the Leupold top 2/3 clamping. IIRC, it just barely contacted, but wouldn't clear the lense caps (which all broke to pieces after 500 runds last weekend - pin came out, spring went flying, etc).

Tinkering with this set-up at the moment, so far I like it.. Had the optic on several other rifles and it works great, for this application clears the tall rear sight which my IZZY Trilux won't do..
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Here is my MUTT build W/Optic:
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In this PIC the TRILUX (which I like) is mounted on another build:
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Here's my full length Imbel Sledgehammer-built rifle with the ARMS mount and a Weaver V-3 scope in Warne rings. I had to relieve the rivet at the rear of the mount to just clear the scope. That's about as low as I could go. I really like this combination and it has worked good so far. Sorry, I don't have a close-up pic, but this will have to do:

__________________
My daddy was a cowboy in his younger days, wild as the west Texas wind. He once told me, "Son, death is a horse you got to ride. So you better get your saddle ready."

Thank you sir! The sling was sold by a member here, Rooster. It is multi-adjustable, allowing several types of carry and also has a quick-detach feature too. I don't know if he's still in the business though. Someone around here should know...

__________________
My daddy was a cowboy in his younger days, wild as the west Texas wind. He once told me, "Son, death is a horse you got to ride. So you better get your saddle ready."

Thank you sir! The sling was sold by a member here, Rooster. It is multi-adjustable, allowing several types of carry and also has a quick-detach feature too. I don't know if he's still in the business though. Someone around here should know...

Okay then, I have learned to post pictures and here they are. My DSA SA-58 with a B&T Ent. Ltd. Light Tactical Rail. It has a 4x Leupold on a steel cover. I will eventually replace it with a Vari X III 2.5x8. Note how low the scope fits in low rings. Fast sight picture and head alined with scope. No crawling around on the stock, no head having to lift off the stock to see thru the scope, no pads or "bandages". It's the same as my Mauser hunting rifle. Yes, the rear sight IS removed but housed with it's other screw in tape in the SAW grip. If it is ever needed, slide in place with the one screw loctited in place, screw the other down snug for the same zero when needed. Nice thing about this package, I can slip off the LTR cover and slip on my LTR Red Dot cover for close work. Already zeroed and ready to go.

So, he wants to know about night vision on our rail? NO! Too Damn Heavy, for the most part. My take on it. I can see crosshairs pretty well thru a Leupold Vari XIII 2.5x8 I have mounted on a Mauser to 200 yds if there is any light to gather. Street, moon, etc. I guess we just aren't that "TACTICOOL".

So, he wants to know about night vision on our rail? NO! Too Damn Heavy, for the most part. My take on it. I can see crosshairs pretty well thru a Leupold Vari XIII 2.5x8 I have mounted on a Mauser to 200 yds if there is any light to gather. Street, moon, etc. I guess we just aren't that "TACTICOOL".

So your advice is not to use night vision scopes on FALs or to use special mounting systems for them?

Our mounts are designed for Lightweight Optics and Red Dots. We apply the K.I.S.S. principle. The goal when we undertook this rail was, we wanted something "VERY" light, that you would not even know it was there if there wasn't something on it. Also, it had to be non invasive of the topcover, no drilling or tapping, no rivits to fall off into the action at some point in time. It doesn't interfere with the sights being so much lower in profile. If you want to put a simple optic on, you can, and easily too.

If you want night vision on your rifle that's your decision. If it weights more than 22 ounces in conjunction with any other device, put it on some other mount. Personally, I don't see myself ever needing it. If I were ever to need night vision, I think the kind worn on ones head would be a better option.

Is that a little clearer now? I don't want to hijack this thread any further. PM me.

Here are some pics (terrible, I know) of the nearmisses mount with a PA Micro dot. Nice, usable lower 1/3-ish co-witness with the para rear sight. Pic makes it look funny b/c I couldn't get the phone any closer to the stock to line up sights.

I went with the Warne over the Leupold because the side clamping seems to work better for me than the Leupold top 2/3 clamping. IIRC, it just barely contacted, but wouldn't clear the lense caps (which all broke to pieces after 500 runds last weekend - pin came out, spring went flying, etc).
__________________
T. Mark Graham
Master Gunsmith
Arizona Response Systems, LLC

I like the Warne's also. Used them for in years before from their original inventor, Len Brownell. There are many but scope mounts must be altered in some way as Mark did. There are exceptions. Ours is low already so you're half way there.